Vidal Leiva is the president of Comité de Defensa de Tierras de las comunidades Garífunas de Cristales y Río Negro (Committee for the Defence of Land of the Garifuna communities Crystals and Black River) and has played a prominent role in the defence of land rights and the denunciation of forced evictions in Trujillo.

Human rights defenders suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as judicial harassment, threats and stigmatisation. Since the 2009 military coup, the number of killings, threats and acts of intimidation against campesinos and environmental rights defenders has increased. The perpetrators of violations against many defenders of environmental, land and indigenous rights, are often influential landowners or logging companies.